2017 Best Restaurants in Austin, Top 25

By Matthew Odam
Updated Oct. 19, 2017

You can tell a great deal about a city by the way its citizens express themselves, whether through art, music or civic engagement. I find food to be one of the most engaging articulations of individuals and community, with restaurants offering a specific lens through which to view a city.

Every good city needs a comforting Italian restaurant and ritzy steakhouse, but the best restaurants are often ones that feel as if they couldn’t be found anywhere else. The kind of place a city can brag about.

My annual Dining Guide attempts to deliver a snapshot of Austin’s growing scene while celebrating that which is original and special about the city. Food — its quality, thoughtfulness and consistency of execution — is always the most important factor in determining a ranking. A restaurant’s sense of place, its ability to surprise me with uniqueness and creativity and to provide a consistently high level of service also weigh into my judgments.

The guide features my Top 25 restaurants in the Austin area followed by 50 more critic’s picks, which are listed alphabetically simply because differentiating between No. 52 and No. 67 is enough to drive a critic mad. I’ve visited all of these restaurants (and many more) at least once in the past year, and a restaurant has to have been open by July 1 of this year to be considered for the guide. The lists contain high-end restaurants as well as a smattering of trailers. I kept my parameters limited to locally owned restaurants in the Austin area.

Don’t see one of your favorites, or think a ranking is too low or too high? Maybe my visits came on an especially strong or weak night. Maybe I was bored by a static menu. Or, maybe we just simply disagree. Which is understandable. It’s just my opinion, man. Besides, another thing that makes a city great is the room it gives for healthy debate.

All appreciation of food is subjective, and you will surely pick nits or disagree vehemently with this list. That's great. I love feedback. You can email modam@statesman.com, call 512-912-5986, snag my attention on Twitter (@odam) or Instagram (@matthewodam), or send a letter to the Statesman's office. Let's keep the conversation going.

1610 San Antonio St.

1610 San Antonio St.

Wynton Marsalis unveiled his “Blues Symphony” in 2009. The idea of expressing one musical tradition through the classical modes of another struck me when thinking about Olamaie. Chef-owner Michael Fojtasek, whose restaurant is named after four generations of Southern women in his family, cut his teeth at restaurants like the world-class Per Se in New York City and uses some of the techniques learned there to reimagine sustainably sourced seasonal Southern food, like a symphony playing the blues.

1807 S. First St.

1807 S. First St.

The job of a great chef goes beyond creating a distinct concept and a great setting. The best chefs have an eye for the right people. They find smart, talented employees whom they can trust and then give them the room and support to operate. Those criteria speak to how Todd Duplechan, co-owner of Lenoir with his wife, Jessica Maher, has created such a special place. Yes, the idea of hot-weather food — taking local ingredients and creating dishes with flavor profiles that replicate regions around the world with similar climates to Texas (think quail with green mole and Gulf shrimp with tomato curry) — is brilliant. And, yes, you feel like you’re entering a secret hideaway when you enter the shabby-chic bungalow space. But, it’s the other details of leadership that take Lenoir to the next level.

2406 Manor Road.

2406 Manor Road.

With his impressive size and big, scraggly beard, Dai Due chef-owner Jesse Griffiths looks like a mountain man, but he’s 100 percent Texan. He knows where to hunt dove and rabbit, where to gig flounder and harvest oysters, and he knows what to do with it all once he gets his hands on it. There is probably not a more quintessential Texas spot in Austin than Dai Due, a restaurant that celebrates the state’s bounty and many influences with power and finesse.

1201 S. Lamar Blvd.

1201 S. Lamar Blvd.

I don’t know why Odd Duck always makes me feel at home. It’s probably the farm-to-table idea that I learned by osmosis through my grandparents, the comforting flavors and the conviviality of the engaged staff. But more than that, I think it’s the sense at Odd Duck that food is meant to bring people together. It’s the way your intrigued neighbor at the bar leans over to ask how good the seeded pretzel stuffed with pig face carnitas is (very) or what’s buried beneath the fruit and greens of your tostada (fresh crab), or the way the server behind the bar talks about the progress of the beta trials of their house-made root beer.

51 Rainey St., Suite 110

51 Rainey St., Suite 110

The best restaurants reflect and amplify the voice and vision of a chef. Kevin Fink brims with a passion for food and creativity, and that energy is contagious. Eavesdrop as the chef delivers a dish to a table and you will hear him speak about ingredients and techniques with an enthusiasm that infects his entire team. The waitstaff may be waxing eloquently about the beauty of simple sliced melon dusted with lemon verbena and sugar or explaining that the heritage grain white Sonoran wheat was used to make the Indian-inspired roti on which sits juicy and crispy rib carnitas.

2400 E. Cesar Chavez St.

2400 E. Cesar Chavez St.

When people tell you that Austin’s not a grown-up town, that it lacks sophistication or the kind of spaces that make dining out an experience, send them to Juniper. With its sleek and dark-blue-and-black color scheme, dramatic design touches like an architectural wave cresting over the bar and broad juniper tree painted on the wall, and a stunning open kitchen, Juniper has the confident cool of a New York City restaurant. But don’t let the invocation of that city worry you that dishes will be overwrought or overbearing.

6555 Burnet Rd #400

6555 Burnet Rd #400

You know exactly what’s coming out of the kitchen at some restaurants. And while it’s always nice to have in your back pocket a roster of reliable go-to dishes that you’ve eaten five or 50 times, it’s more fun to be surprised by the unexpected. When you go to Barley Swine, you know that you’ll be getting creative dishes that utilize farm-fresh ingredients, along with cocktails from one of the most enjoyable beverage programs in town, but you never know exactly how Bryce Gilmore’s team is going to transform the region’s bounty.

1900 Simond Ave.

1900 Simond Ave.

What do we love about Italian food? Its simplicity and seasonality. Like summertime dishes of red shrimp crudo brightened with bergamot orange and mint, a vegetable crudite served in a warm, pungent froth of anchovy butter, or bursting tomatoes and milky house-made straciatella cheese perched on crusty bread. And, of course, there is pasta. Find a chef like Fiore Tedesco who can coax memories and longing with the texture of spaghetti carbonara and a fine-tuned balance of meaty golden oyster mushrooms and sweet bits of corn scattered around generous corn-ricotta ravioli and you’ll follow his lead just about anywhere.

2713 E. Second St.

2713 E. Second St.

You want a taste of eclectic Austin? You want to touch a live wire that is part of the energy current drawing people to town? You want to experience a restaurant that mashes up two seemingly disparate cultures? You want to see a place that looks like no other restaurant in Austin or the rest of the country? Head to Kemuri. Tokyo-born and Austin-raised Tatsu Aikawa and native Austinite and first-generation Japanese-American Takuya “Tako” Matsumoto, who ignited a ramen craze in Austin when they opened Ramen Tatsu-Ya, have blended a Texas smokehouse with Japanese izakaya for a wholly unique menu.

900 E. 11th St.

900 E. 11th St.

But, but, but … the line. If you think it’s some crime against humanity or manufactured fad that people should stand in line for a few hours for barbecue, if you ignorantly think the line is something devised by Aaron Franklin to draw eyeballs and magazine stories, do us all a favor and just skip the next few sentences. Because you have to get over the line to appreciate the perfection of Franklin’s jiggly, pepper-blackened brisket with its silky rendered fat, as well as the lacquered ribs that have gotten better each year since Aaron and Stacy Franklin opened their East Austin restaurant.

2708 E. Cesar Chavez St.

2708 E. Cesar Chavez St.

I balked when I first heard that this restaurant, with its name just too cute by half, served “Hill Country cuisine.” Despite having spent a good amount of my life in that neck of the woods, I didn’t believe it to have an identifiable cuisine. I feared the name might just be marketing run amok. I was wrong to worry. If you think of quail when you think of the Hill Country, you’ll be surprised and delighted by a pickled quail egg served in a throne of leeks. If you think of beef, there’s the homemade jerky glistening with jalapeño jelly and the primal grilled beef tongue.

23526 Texas 71, Spicewood

23526 Texas 71, Spicewood

The rolling hills deliver a strong sense memory each time I head here. As you wind up and around the low hills toward chef Taylor Hall’s restaurant, you start to remember the mineral ooze and nuttiness of the egg toast sandwiching mimolette cheese and topped with 120-day aged beef, and you imagine what the creative and exacting chefs might have in store this time. And as you tear into the black, corn ash crepe strewn with pickled chilies and filled with fermented hominy, you consider the chefs’ thoughtfulness and sweating of every last detail.

1603 S. Congress Ave.

1603 S. Congress Ave.

The intimacy and attention to detail of a Kyoto kaiseki, the energy and excitement of modern Austin and lighting design of Stanley Kubrick. Otoko is a gorgeous, transportive, exclusive trip. And the leader of the experience, chef Yoshi Okai, contributes to the mischievous art, with his wicked but disarming smile, effervescent but opaque enthusiasm and elegant plating of striking flavors. A tiny, crunchy freshwater crab blends playfulness and menace atop the woodsy umami crunch of fried shiitake and chayote squash to start a meal that turns to a run of exquisite sushi like scored kampachi brushed with nikiri; a meaty and creamy kushi oyster; shima aji speckled with toasty black sesame; and madai slicked with the sweet-sour-grassy-and-salty symphony of matcha oil.

4600 Mueller Blvd. #1035

4600 Mueller Blvd. #1035

This is my favorite sushi in Austin. But let’s address the elephant in the room: This is a surreal dining experience. You’re in a space smaller than a millionaire’s walk-in closet. And, with only eight seats available at the sushi counter, there’s a chance you and your date may be the only two people in the restaurant for the omakase experience. OK, even calling it a restaurant feels a little strange. But this is the bizarre and beautiful world chef Otto Phan has carved out for himself in the Mueller development.

Multiple locations

Multiple locations

The original bar-setter when it comes to informed and attentive service. The you’ll-find-no-arguments-here choice when looking for a fine dining spot for you and your friends. The go-to for second dates and third anniversaries. Uchi and its more spacious and breathable sibling in Central Austin have been synonymous with elevated Austin dining for almost 15 years, and when you think of the number of Top 25 restaurants helmed by Uchi’s alumni, it’s hard to imagine where the scene would be without this breeding ground of culinary talent.

This restaurant is closed

This restaurant is closed

Chef Philip Speer likes to describe his Central Austin restaurant as Waffle House-meets-French bistro. The description may sound like a silly head-scratcher at first, but one visit proves that the former culinary director at Uchi nailed the concept. While the stacks of white plates lining the open kitchen, globe light fixtures and red booths lining the restaurant speak to the diner idea, the dishes drive it home.

315 Congress Ave.

315 Congress Ave.

A sliding door allows you into the kitchen ringed with counter seating on the middle floor of an old downtown building. The bleached wood and white walls of the hermetically sealed space give the feeling of both laboratory and exhibition space. And the team here, led by executive chef Damien Brockway, is certainly into experimenting and creating artistic dishes. The extent of their influences and their limitless exploration can be dizzying. You might encounter a delicate yellowtail strewn with greens and zipped with tomato vinegar that moves from sweet to tart in one dish, and a hearty abalone stew with whipped soy the next.

2115 Holly St.

2115 Holly St.

Fun, inviting, exciting but familiar — these are the hallmarks of great neighborhood restaurants. Launderette figured that out early on and has stuck to the script. The personalities of restaurants often mirror the styles of the chefs who run them, and that is certainly the case with this East Austin spot, where chefs Rene Ortiz and Laura Sawicki have created a cross-cultural menu that enlivens the senses and comforts the soul.

Multiple locations

Multiple locations

Steven Dilley owns the best Neapolitan pizza restaurant in the city — two of them, actually — and that’s not even what really gets him juiced. The University of Texas graduate was named one of Food & Wine’s sommeliers of the year, and his massive, well-curated and approachable wine list is one of the most impressive in town, with heavy emphasis on France.

1722 S. Congress Ave.

1722 S. Congress Ave.

The Peach Pit meets French brasserie at this cute and lively spot from McGuire Moorman Hospitality. The television shows European soccer in the afternoon as fried chicken sandwiches and chilled artichokes fly out of the kitchen. One minute French artist Serge Gainsbourg’s dub step-tinged “Lola Rastaquouere” pounces across the airwaves, followed immediately by the swaggering hallucinogenic fuzz rock of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul.”

​1000 E. 11th St.

​1000 E. 11th St.

If you want to signify that you are cool, you can blast Tribe Called Quest and throw up one piece of art that pays homage to Notorious B.I.G. and another that clowns Donald Trump. But if your restaurant is going to advertise that it serves “dope Chinese,” the food has to be as strong as the aesthetic and vibe. It is at this restaurant that opened at the end of 2016. Alumni of the Uchi group of restaurants, co-executive chefs James Dumapit and David Baek nod slightly to their respective Filipino and Korean heritages while cooking thoughtful versions of what Dumapit calls “the original cuisine.”

85 Rainey St.

85 Rainey St.

When dining at El Naranjo, I invariably spot a table of Mexican nationals conversing in Spanish or infer that the table of women next to me spend a lot of time traveling throughout Mexico. My point: These people know the real deal when it comes to Mexican cuisine, and chef Iliana de la Vega is the genuine article. She opened her restaurant in Austin after more than a decade of running a restaurant of the same name in Oaxaca City, and her Rainey retreat has the same mix of sophistication and comfort as some of the best restaurants in that town.

1600 E. Sixth St.

1600 E. Sixth St.

Many diners had trouble understanding what Paul Qui was attempting with his first restaurant, Qui, which he closed in 2016. Was it a global restaurant? Filipino? Was it prix fixe or a la carte? They wanted the Qui they knew from Uchiko, where he won his James Beard award. While Kuneho is by no means a copycat of the restaurant that made him famous, it does find the chef returning to the search for the perfect bite.

800 W. Cesar Chavez St.

800 W. Cesar Chavez St.

It’s fitting that Boiler Nine, located in the old Seaholm Power Plant, has an industrial feel to it, because it’s as adaptable as a Transformer. There’s the subterranean bar, one of downtown’s hidden gems with its craft cocktails and slew of smart bar food like balsamic fish sauce chicken wings; the rooftop deck with its own list of food and wine; and the centerpiece bar and grill on the ground floor.

4807 Airport Blvd.

4807 Airport Blvd.

The culture of dining in Spain lends itself nicely to the leisurely and communal style adopted in recent years in Austin. Sit at the long, tall table that separates the bar from the dining room at owner Shawn Cirkiel’s homage to his travels to Spain and snack on branzino crudo awash in the summer sunshine of peach and corn, or tender grilled octopus, the grassy and licorice notes of fennel and celery countered by the depth and garlicky tang of squid ink bourride.